On Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the results of her investigation into sexual assault allegations against governor Andrew Cuomo in a blistering 165-page report, stating that they found Cuomo had sexually harassed 11 women and created a "hostile" work environment for women.
As the news broke, several social media users criticized CNN's coverage claiming they had invited Jeffrey Toobin, who was accused of masturbating during a live Zoom call last year, to analyze the controversy as a legal expert. One tweet in particular shared a screenshot of CNN's coverage of the scandal with a man who appears to be Toobin on the bottom left.
"There is nothing more amazing than watching @JeffreyToobin analyze the @andrewcuomo allegations on @CNN," the image is captioned. Here's the tweet.
Political commentator Clay Travis and former Fox News reporter Megyn Kelly also tweeted the claim on their respective Twitter accounts:
As previously reported, Toobin, who worked as a writer for New Yorker for nearly three decades was fired following a weeks-long investigation into an incident that took place in October, in which he exposed himself and started masturbating during an election simulation meeting with magazine and WNYC radio staffers on Zoom in the run-up to the presidential election. Toobin has also been working as a legal analyst for CNN since 2002.
Case of Mistaken Identity
Although the screenshot of the CNN coverage in the first tweet is genuine, we can confirm that the man in the bottom left corner is not Toobin. It is actually CNN's political director David Chalian. Travis and Kelly also followed up their tweets with posts to clarify that they had incorrectly identified Chalian as Toobin.
However, it is understandable how social media users got Chalian and Toobin mixed up. The pair share a striking resemblance to each other. That said, Toobin has not appeared on CNN to comment on the Cuomo controversy. However, it is possible that he might in the future, as Toobin is still employed by CNN.
